Keeping rain gutters free of debris is a common nuisance for home owners. When debris such as leaves, shingle residue, and other material collect within a rain gutter, the rain gutter is prone to becoming clogged and ceasing to function to carry water in a desirable fashion off of the roof and away from the building. Not only is the process of cleaning gutters of such debris a nuisance, it also entails significant risk of injury, particularly when the rain gutters are elevated high above the ground.
To remedy this undesirable situation, numerous products have been developed to keep debris from collecting within a rain gutter, so that the cleaning of the gutters can be avoided. For representative sampling of such prior inventions, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,646,488 (Burns), U.S. Pat. No. 4,745,710 (Davis), U.S. Pat. No. 4,949,514 (Weller), U.S. Pat. No. 5,010,696 (Knittel), U.S. Pat. No. 5,261,195 (Buckenmaier), U.S. Pat. No. 5,640,809 (Iannelli), U.S. Pat. No. 6,134,843 (Tregear) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,598,352 (Higginbotham).
Some such prior art gutter debris guards utilize some form of screen which allows water to pass through but precludes debris. Such screen-based gutter debris guards present a difficult technical problem. If the apertures in the screen are too large, then debris will pass through the openings in the screen, causing the device to fail. If the openings are slightly smaller, the debris can become lodged within the apertures themselves, plugging up the apertures and providing a homeowner with a new challenge involved in cleaning debris out of the screen itself. Also, if the openings are large, the screen must either be of very high strength material, or be subject to bending or other collapse when a large amount of debris is located upon the screen. At the other extreme, if the openings are too small, surface tension forces in the water will cause a film of water to span the openings in the screen and the water will roll across the screen and not pass through the screen into the gutter. With such fine mesh screens, water is thus not adequately allowed to pass through the screen and water spills over the gutters, preventing the gutter from functioning at all.
The patent to Higginbotham (U.S. Pat. No. 6,598,352) teaches one solution to this problem. In particular, the screen is supported from below by a series of vertical legs that extend up to elliptical heads which support the screen thereon. With the elliptical heads of the legs in contact with the screen, adhesion forces in the water are beneficially utilized to provide a wetted path of surface material wicking the water down through the screen along these legs where the water is then further allowed to drop down into the gutter.
While the Higginbotham skeletal support structure with included screen supporting legs is generally effective, it exhibits some drawbacks which have been addressed by this invention. In particular, the skeletal structure including the legs and included ellipses is rather complex in form. It is not easily attached to rain gutters, and is not conveniently formed for supporting the included screen. Also, Higginbotham teaches use of multiple structures together underlying the screen, rather than utilizing a simplified single structure to support the screen and assist in drawing the water through the screen and into the gutter. Higginbotham is attached to the gutter only, rather than between the roof and the gutter. Such attachment results in more difficult installation.